Does Google put new articles on front page to monitor reader response?

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   DrMark1961posted 4 years ago

   A few days this subject came up on another thread and only a few people commented on it. Is it better to publish the old articles that were not successful, to see it they are able to gain readership on Google, or just edit them as previously suggested.
   (Sometimes after editing an article of mine will gain a few views but I have never seen one move up towards the top of my account page. Does Google even bother to shuffle articles after they have been edited, or if they are losers when published are they considered losers for all time?)

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      OldRosesposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      I've been shouted down saying things like this, so I will append the word "anecdotally" to my sweeping generalizations.  Anecdotally, I have found that when I edit old articles, they immediately move up in the rankings of my account page.  So I would recommend editing old articles to keep them up to date as well as near or at the top of Google searches.

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         DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks. I have some articles that have never been near the top of the Google search. When edited, they do not move up much. (Maybe from one view a day to five views a day.) They are all on niche sites, but I think it might be better to just delete them and start over. This is just anecdotal info.

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            OldRosesposted 4 years agoin reply to this

            I never delete old "non-performing" articles because I have found that readership is very fickle.  An article that has languished a year or two will suddenly become very popular.  The most extreme example of this is an article that I published in 2014 that had almost no views suddenly skyrocketed last year to 1,000+ views per day for months.  I have another article that I also published in 2014 that is aimed at Thanksgiving that 2 years ago suddenly went from almost no views to middle of the pack in both November and December.  Then starting in fall of 2019, it surged again and has maintained that traffic through to the present (January 2020).  So I like to hang on to those old articles and update them every year to keep them current because I never know when one will suddenly take off.

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               DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

               You have been here several years more than me but I have NEVER seen that happen to one of my articles. (I guess I can keep hoping.) I have seen several jump out of the top positions, usually when they are read and rewritten by some reader via a search engine, but certainly not improve in position like you are describing with your Thanksgiving article. I do update at least every calendar year; these "bottom of the barrel" hubs just dont seem to care.

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         Sherry Hewinsposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         I have had a few articles that have "popped" after a few years of being published;. it's not necessarily after being edited, but suddenly something has happened. Someone has shared the article on FaceBook, or Twitter, or somewhere else. Suddenly it has caught fire.

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            DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

            After a temporary surge on FB or twitter, have you seen any lasting impact  with a change in Google rankings? I wonder sometimes if Google even notices.

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      promisemposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      The ranking of articles on Google depends on many, many factors and not just if they are new or not. Other factors include the website where they appear, the length of the article, grammar, author reputation, download speed (now very important), backlinks from quality websites, etc.
      
      Anyone who simply republishes an article will probably see it drop in rankings because the age of the article is also a factor. They also will lose backlinks.
      
      If an article is truly a failure, it's better to rewrite the whole thing and give it a new title. But that should happen only after a thorough analysis of why the first version failed, including whether it is properly optimized for search engines.

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         DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

         A lot to think about here. One very poorly performing article is on leg wound treatment for a horse when no vet is available. It is refereced and detailed but since it has almost never been read has few backlinks. I do not know how to improve this as the only thing I can see wrong with it is the website. Not much I can do about that and I can see no way to improve it to increase traffic.
         The other poorly performing articles seem to have more backlinks, but still not that many. You said you think they should have a new title, which I agree, but do you think there are many benefits to unpublishing first? (Besides loss of the age factor, which I do not know is even sigfiicant in these cases.)

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            promisemposted 4 years agoin reply to this

            Which article is the leg wound treatment?

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               DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

               https://pethelpful.com/horses/wounded-h … -available

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                  promisemposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                  Part of the problem may be a lack of searches on Google about horse leg wounds. I extracted the following list of keywords from Google Ads that contain the words "horse" and "wound".
                  
                  They are suggestions from Google specific to your article. The numbers show the average monthly searches for each set of keywords.
                  
                  You might try adding some of these keywords or variations of them (but be careful of overdoing it) and then track any change in rankings. 
                  
                  Likewise, I suggest linking from similar keywords in your other articles to this article to see if it helps. Any changes in rankings may take some time. but there are no guarantees because of competition from other websites.
                  
                  horse wound care    320
                  horse wound spray    210
                  how to treat an open wound on a horse    140
                  ointment for horse wounds    110
                  horse wound    110
                  horse wounds on legs    110
                  horse wound care products    90
                  horse wound treatment    70
                  puncture wounds in horses    50
                  wound powder for horses    40
                  horse wound healing stages    40
                  bandaging horse leg wounds    40
                  infected horse wound    40
                  horse wound cream    30
                  best wound care for horses    30
                  horse leg wound not healing    30
                  how to wrap a horse leg wound    30
                  horse wound healing    20
                  treating open wounds on horses    20
                  manuka honey for wounds on horses    20
                  wound dressing for horses    20
                  spray for horse wounds    20
                  horse leg wound care    10
                  horse puncture wound treatment    10
                  wound management in horses    10
                  how to treat horse wounds    10
                  how to bandage a horse wound    10
                  keeping flies off horse wounds    10

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                     DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

                     Thanks for looking at that for me. I agree that those numbers are REALLY low, but I would be happy with only 10. At least I would know that it is helping the people I wrote it for.
                     I am going to try and follow a few of your suggestions and see if the traffic improves. Thank you again.

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                        promisemposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                        Glad to help.

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               DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

               I just added back the image of me treating the wound on her leg today. Google adsense has, over the years, gone through and determined that certain images were too graphic for their liking. Now that HP is no longer going to be submiting to Google, I am hoping that they will allow such images to stay.
               We will see. Other sites that discuss animal health, and rank better than this one, have much more graphic images.

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            OldRosesposted 4 years agoin reply to this

            How do you promote your articles?  I have a separate FB page devoted to my articles.  I also have boards on my personal Pinterest page for my articles.  I often see a bump in traffic after I have posted my articles on FB.

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               DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

               The vast majority are from Google. I never use FB. I do get several hundred (lately about 400/day) readers from Pinterest.

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   Doneta Wrateposted 4 years ago

   Old Roses, thank you for your comments.  I found that very interesting

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      OldRosesposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      You're welcome!  So glad that I could contribute to the discussion.  I lurked in the forums for many years and learned so much just reading the questions and answers.  Now I feel that I have learned enough that I can start to give back and help other writers.  I'm still learning though!

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